| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Padres 1, White Sox 0
Monday June 16, 2003CHICAGO (AP) Rod Beck has been through too much just to make it back to majors to let a leadoff walk bother him.
Beck got the final three outs for his first save since 2001 and Oliver Perez pitched 6 2-3 scoreless innings as the San Diego Padres beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0 on Sunday.
Beck missed the 2002 season after ``Tommy John'' surgery on his right elbow in October 2001.
``It's not so much I'm proud of myself as I'm proud of my family,'' Beck said. ``They supported me and pushed me all the way back. But there's still a lot ahead.''
For the fourth straight series, the Padres faced being swept. And for the fourth straight series, they salvaged the last game, with Mark Loretta's single driving in the only run.
After the leadoff walk, Beck got Aaron Rowand to pop out on a bunt attempt for the first out and got Armando Rios to ground into a double-play for his 267th major league save.
``Beck got it down, kept his composure after the leadoff walk and lucked out with the bunt,'' Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. ``You have to be excited for him. It's been a long road back.''
Perez (2-3), making his first appearance since being promoted back to the majors, allowed five hits in his longest outing of the season. He struck out six and walked two.
Perez made eight starts for Triple-A Portland before returning to the Padres. Perez was sent down after struggling with an 8.23 ERA in first six starts of the season.
After Luther Hackman got four outs, Beck took over to start the ninth en route to his first save since Sept. 20, 2001, when he pitched for Boston and faced Tampa Bay.
Jon Garland (4-6) took the loss, allowing three hits in eight innings. He struck out four and walked four. Garland didn't allow a hit after the third inning.
The Padres scored in the third when Loretta drove in Gary Matthews Jr.
The White Sox finished with seven hits and stranded nine runners, five in scoring position.
``We had some opportunities. We just really executed poorly today, offensively,'' said White Sox manager Jerry Manuel.
Magglio Ordonez led off with a double in the fourth and tried to score on a two-out single by Joe Crede, but was thrown out by right fielder Xavier Nady.
Rowand led off the fifth with a double and was left on base. He failed to tag to third on Miguel Olivo's fly out to the warning track. Mark Kotsay made a running catch at the warning track. Perez then got Tony Graffanino to fly out and struck out Jose Valentin to end the inning.
``I should have tagged,'' Rowand said. ``I thought there was no way he was going to catch it.''< ^Notes:@ Thomas went 0-for-3 for the White Sox. He got a rest from playing the field and was the DH. In 16 games at first base, Thomas is batting .386 (22-57) ... Loretta went 1-for-4 and is hitting .446 in June. He has a nine-game hitting streak.
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